Metrorail weekend disruptions

When the transit authority postponed track work at Rosslyn Station after the big February snowstorms, it did so with great reluctance. The Presidents' Day weekend project took a long time to arrange, and it was a window of opportunity to get a big job done all at once when relatively few people were riding the Orange and Blue lines.

Now Metro has decided it can't wait any longer for the switch replacement project and will go ahead with it over the next two weekends. Riders on the Blue and Orange lines who plan to travel through Rosslyn on Friday night through Sunday night should add 40 minutes to the usual trip time while trains share a single track around the work zone.

But there's more: Travel also will be disrupted this weekend for maintenance on the Red and Green lines. Keep all this in mind if you're planning a Metrorail trip to Nationals Park, RFK Stadium or Verizon Center for the weekend's sports events. Suburbanites who might normally drive to Vienna, Franconia-Springfield, Greenbelt, Glenmont or Shady Grove because of the free weekend parking and take Metrorail might want to reconsider their options.

Here are the details about the weekend maintenance:

Orange/BlueThe 40-minute delays will affect riders between Court House and Foggy Bottom Metrorail stations on the Orange Line and between Arlington National Cemetery and Foggy Bottom on the Blue Line. Trains will share a track between these stations from 10 p.m. Friday through the midnight closing Sunday.

Throughout the weekend, all Blue and Orange Line trains will depart about every 20 minutes from Largo, Franconia-Springfield, New Carrollton and Vienna. At the stations between Rosslyn and Stadium-Armory, trains will operate about every 10 minutes.

Red
If you're planning to take Metrorail between between Medical Center and Friendship Heights, add at least half an hour to travel times between 10 p.m. Friday and the midnight closing Sunday. Metro will replace aging rail fasteners to stabilize the tracks.

All trains will leave about every 20 minutes from Shady Grove. To improve travel into downtown Washington, every other Red Line train heading toward Shady Grove will terminate at Friendship Heights and head back through downtown to Glenmont. So for the stations between Friendship Heights and Glenmont, the trains should arrive about every 10 minutes.

Green
Riders between College Park and Greenbelt should add at least 20 minutes to their travel times from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Trains will be sharing a track around a work zone where new rail will be placed.

Can we get a more thorough exploration into why trains have had to single track around medical center for what seems to be a solid year. It is always made to sound temporary, but single-tracking in this area is so frequent, I'm starting to think they are building a new tunnel here.